“Fairy Circles” Professor Robert
Plot’s Hypothesis. Part 2 Modern Interpretation.

In 1686 Sir Isaac Newton was 44 years old and
engaged in his greatest work the ‘Principia’ (published in1687.) His
contemporary, Professor Robert Plot .LLD was Keeper of the Ashmolean
Museum and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. He
was one of, if not the first palaeontologists in that he discovered
and published evidence of the first fossil bone now known to be part
of a dinosaur. This was revealed in his book “A Natural History of
Oxfordshire” of 1676.

In 1686 Professor Plot published a further work,
“A Natural History of Staffordshire”. In this book he reported on
his investigations of ‘Fairy Rings’, which name would have been apt
in the context of his time, when superstition was generally rife and
the existence of witches, goblins, elves and fairies was undoubted.
This description can now be seen to refer to our modern phenomenon
of “Crop Circles”. The professor’s text makes plain that the
formations he studied were frequently encountered in the fields of
Staffordshire over a period of years, also attested to by his scholarly
friends and landowners. The county may have been the equivalent of
today's Wiltshire as the contemporary area of concentration of
formations, possibly due to the fact that they were seen by the
‘Circle Makers’ to arouse the interest of the county’s inhabitants.

In contrast with modern times, Plot and his
fellow academics appear to have taken a very active scientific
interest in the phenomenon. . What a contrast to the attitude of
most of our modern academic fraternity.

Note from Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable” published 1880.

Matthew Hopkins of Manningtree, Essex the ‘Witch-
Finder’ of the associated counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and
Huntingdonshire, hanged sixty reputed witches in one year in Essex
alone. Dr.Z.Grey, Contempory 1880, said that between three and four
thousand persons suffered death for witchcraft between 1643 and
1661.

How many I wonder, were accused of making crop
formations?

It appears from Professor Plots report, that no
firm conclusions were reached regarding a true cause or the meaning
behind the ‘fairy rings’. There are no tentative explanations
involving Extra Terrestrials, Ley Lines or Plasma Vortices and the
possibility of hoaxers being responsible does not seem to have
crossed anyone's mind. Of course the world was a very different
place then. Only a privileged few had the resources and time to
possibly enact or even investigate such events and the members of
this elite were generally well known to each other. It was a very
small world, any odd behavior in the community would have been
quickly noticed, and certainly no educated person would have
demeaned himself with any ‘peasant like’ work of creating
meaningless formations in grass, meadowland and arable fields.. How
would any presumed hoaxers have got around the country side? Hardly
to have been on horseback or horse and cart in the dead of night.

An interpretation with comments, of Professor
Plot’s Hypothesis of 1686.

There have been earlier interpretations of The
professor’s work namely in the book edited by Ralph Noyes” The Crop
Circle Enigma” with a chapter ‘Clutching at Straws’ by Robert
Rickard which was a ‘hatchet job’, and an account by Mark Haywood
in the Winter 1998 edition of The Circular Review. This latter was a
factual and valuable article which has not received the attention it
has deserved, possibly because of the use of the difficult to read
original ‘Olde English’ text, and the deliberate ignoring and down
playing of it’s significance by those modern agency’s with a
different agenda, much as are still evidently active today. Note
Rob Rickard was a founder of’ Fortean Times’ which has been an
active debunker of paranormal sourced claims for crop formations
for decades.

Please Note : The
remarks in italics are intended to explain or clarify the
meaning of the original text , other remarks in brackets are the
Professors own. Some sentences have been paraphrased in the
interests of clarity.

Fairy Circles.

“And here perchance by the way, it may be no
great digression to enquire into the nature and efficient cause of
those rings we find in the grass, which they commonly call “Fairy
Circles”;

Whether they are caused by lightening or are
indeed the rendezvous of Witches, or are the dancing places of those
little pigmy spirits they call elves or fairies”?.

“And the rather, because of: 1 A Question (
perhaps by reason of the difficulty ) scarce yet attempted, and:
2. Because I met with the largest of their kind (that perchance
were ever heard of ), in this County. (of Staffordshire)

One of them shown to me in the grounds between
Handsworth Church and the Heath being near Forty yards in diameter,
and I was told by that ingenious gentleman, ( one of the most
cordial encouragers of this (investigative) work), the Worshipful
Sir Henry Gough Knight, that there was one in his grounds , at Pury-
Hall but a few years since, now indeed ploughed up, of a much
larger size he believed to be near fifty yards (diameter). Whereas
there are some of them not above two yards diameter: This ( fifty
yards down to 2 yards) may be near the two extremes of their
magnitude, (in occurrence).

“Nor is their difference only in the extent of
their diameters. They vary also in other respects, though not
proportionally so much: for I have always observed that the rims of
these circles, from the least to the biggest, are seldom narrower
than a foot, or much broader than a yard. Some (rims) are as
bare as a pathway in many parts of them, other (rims) of a
russet singed colour, both of these (types) have a greener grass in
the middle (of the circle?), and a third sort ( a rim)
of a dark fresh green, the grass within (the middle of the circle)
being of a browner colour. The first kind (of circular rim)
seldom being less than five or six yards in diameter, and the other
two being of various magnitudes, and all of these again can be
imperfect (partcircles) as well as perfect (complete
circles). Some of them (rims) forming three parts of a
circle, others being semicircular, some of them quadrants (four
fold) , and others sextants (sixfold) of their respective
circles.

The descriptions in the above paragraphs
could easily be relevant to many modern formations. The multi-
segmented types described are particularly striking. Also Professor
Plot implies that he has seen or has had a great many reports of
lots of formations over some years!.

The Professor then goes on to carry out analysis
of the soils beneath the formations and his findings could have been
written very recently by modern researchers.

“I thought fit to examine the nature of the soil
under the rims of the circles, especially how it differed from the
adjoining earth, and found by digging up several, that the ground
under all of them was much looser and dryer than ordinary and the
parts interspersed with a white hoar or vinew sic? (filaments),
like that in mouldy bread, and of a musty rancid smell but insipid
to taste, and this scarce above six inches deep anywhere. The earth
below being of its due (normal) consistence and genuine (normal)
smell agreeable to (the same as) the rest of the soils
thereabouts.

“ Whence it being equally plain that I was no
longer to enquire for the origineither from anything under
or upon the ground:- (the Professor has drawn a blank on this
cause ofthe circles), It remained that I should look for
some higher principle (other cause), and indeed after mature
deliberation I could think of none nearer than the middle region; (
he could thinkof nowhere better to look than the “Middle
Region “ which was the name then given by science to the region
between the earth and the heavens),viz, that they (the
circles ) must needs be the effects of lightening, exploding
from the clouds most times in a circular form; perhaps caused by an
ancient natural force called ‘fulmen discutiens’ which though of a
viscous sulphurous consistence, yet taking fire and violently
breaking out from the cloud wherein it was contained, must naturally
expand itself every way obliquely (at an angle) for the
most part in a uniform conical manner, ( see his illustrations
Marked 1 2 &3) , and at a certain distanceto
become a circle and in this form to strike the ground ( thereby
creating a circle. The Professor is theorizing here that a presumed
natural force exploding in the clouds projects the circles onto the
ground.), as may be seen in arable grounds (crops), but
chiefly in wideand open pastures whether Meadows or
Uplands, where trees and hedges interrupt least, and not only in
single, but sometimes in a double and treble Circle one within the
other as was lately shown to me by my Worthy and Ingenious friend
John Priauix M.A. in the field near Oxon and the garden called
Jericho.

They ( the circles ) are rarely also seen
of a quadrangular form (square), encompassed within another
larger circle whereof there was shown to me no less than two
examples by my Ingenious and observing friends John Naylor and Hugh
Todd M.M.A.A. and fellows of the University College in the same St
Gile’s fields, which may yet be reconciled to the same Hypothesis (
method of creation described aboveand also below )

The former (i.e. the three ringed circle)
proceeding from three different (conical) flashes. the second
flash widening the (cone from) the cloud more than the first
flash and the third more than the second so creating the concentric
circles.

The latter (i.e. the circle containing the
square) proceeding from the first flash leaving the cloud in a
quadrangular (square shape , see his illustration [2] ) and
the second ‘after flash’ being in a wider circular form.

All these Rings and Squares being greater or
less in proportion to the distance of the cloud from the earth and
also the tenaciousness of the matter ( the presumed substance of
theflashes), and all appearing at first of a russet
colour, the grass just then being singed by the lightening The year
following, the grass was of a dark and luxuriant green, the earth
underneath being highly improved with a fat sulphurous matter
received from the lightening when it was first struck, but not
exerting it’s fertilizing quality till some time after.”

This latter ‘fertilizing’ effect seen by the
Professor seems to accord with the effect produced by modern weed
killers such as Monsanto’s “Roundup”. the weed killer sterilizes the
soil initially by killing all organic growth, then after some time
becomes innocuous, the dead matter becomes an effective compost and
feeds vigorously any replacement plant life. For similar effects
with modern crop circles? See BLT Reports. W C Levinson re increased
fertility of seeds from crop formations.

The professor continues:-

If it be objected (to); that lightening
causes these Circles, it must also be allowed that it descends
vertically which we know to be seldom or never seen. And that
secondly if their origin be ascribed to lightening they ( the
circles) must always remain of the same magnitude, never
enlarging themselves to a greater diameter than they had at first.
Yet we must acknowledge that some of them certainly do. I have not
only taken notice of this thing myself but have also had it from
some others of unquestionable fidelity that remarked the same, in
two of the circles mentioned in this chapter “.

This phenomenon of additional rings or
enlargements of existing circles some time after their first
appearance, has often to occurred with our modern formations..

It must be answered first that though it be true
that lightening indeed seldom descends vertically, yet it is seldom
found too, that any of these rings are mathematically round unless
they happen to be found on hills or bank sides, which may be
obverted in the right angles to any point of the heavens between the
Zenith and the Horizon) . Most of the circles being rather of a
parabolic figure coming so much nearer to a round shape or receding
farther from it, in proportion as the lightening comes forth nearer
to or farther away from the zenith. ( i.e. Overhead. ).

The professor is in effect saying that a truly
round circle must come from a directly overheadprojection, which can seldom occur as most of them, in his
experience, are not truly round.)

Whence it comes to pass that when the lightening
is exploded (as most frequently it is) in an oblique line ( i.e.
at an angle nearer to the horizon), these circles are imperfect
(not completecircles) and that there are more
semicircles, quadrants and sextants among them than any other form,
in proportion to the angle between the horizon and the zenith at
which the lightening breaks forth from the cloud. (paraphrased
text). Thus if it proceed from a cloud not over 15 degrees
above the horizon the lower part only of the circular explosion will
brush the surface of the earth and will make perhaps only a sextant
( a sixth part) of a circle. If the explosion proceeds at 22
degrees and a half above the horizon it will make a quadrant ( afourth part) of a circle , if at 45 degrees a semicircle, and
so more or less proportionally in the intermediate degrees.

Professor Plot illustrates the latter hypothesis,
see fig [3] , but his theory is flawed . Any circle making force
projected at any angle between directly over head, (the zenith ) and
the horizontal will produce an ellipse or an ovoid to a greater or
lesser extent . Try shining an electric torch directly on a ceiling
and then at various angles. There is no angle where such a force
would form only part of a figure and skip the presumably level
ground beyond that part. At the true horizontal position no figure
at all would be produced. But of course Professor Plot would not
have had access to a device able to throw a circular light beam such
as the modern battery torch with which to do a practical
experiment.

However Professor Plot was undoubtedly
confronting the same phenomenon as we are today and using the
currently available scientific knowledge in 1686 to try to solve
the mystery. Perhaps he thought he had succeeded and that it was
all down to an uncontrolled natural lightening effect. He certainly
avoids suggesting that there could have been any intelligence behind
the phenomenon . Also, in line with some current thought, he must
have had reason to think that the circles were created instantly
i.e. in a flash. His writings suggest that there was, in
Staffordshire at least, widespread local knowledge of frequently
occurring circles. The ones apparently ‘burned’ into grassland
existed into following years viz.” the grass being singed with the
lightening but the year following were of a dark and luxuriant
green”.

It was probably the evidence of singeing or
burning in the grass formations that, in the Professors mind, would
have completely ruled out any possibility of humans being
responsible. There were no portable gas or liquid fuel blow torches
or similar heat intensive devices available in his day, to enable
precise patterns to be burned, dense green grass and plants are
difficult to damage with fire until they are very much dried out!.

It is hard to think that there would not have
been other contemporary witnesses writing too. This seems to call
for more research into documents of that time, but in the meantime
Professor Plot has handed down a very valuable revelation. The Crop
Circles are not a purely modern phenomenon, they were commonly seen
300 years ago and perhaps 300 years or more before then. Perhaps
they have arrived in regular cycles for centuries, maybe the
‘Circle Makers’ have been testing us out from time to time,
patiently waiting for us to wake up and respond intelligently to
their attempt to communicate. a mind boggling thought. Are we
responding intelligently now and if not; what will happen when we
do?